Cindy Sherman: Photographer

Who is She?

Cindy Sherman is a photographer and film director. Sherman is known best for her conceptual images of women. Her work has been featured in many museums and galleries across the world. 

 "To me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was to dress up".  - Cindy Sherman

She enrolled to Buffalo State College, in 1972 to the visual arts department. Throughout her time at Buffalo State her primary focus involved developing her own art and paintings. She realized she enjoyed dressing up herself as different characters and creating a whole new identity. She later mentions how she abandons her art for photography to reveal there is less freedom in painting.

She began photographing moments of when she would “doll up” for parties. This statement is used when Sherman is represented in her photographs with her conceptual images of women. Sherman assumes multiple roles when creating these images. Sherman becomes a hair stylist, where is either making the hair bigger than average, purposely disheveled or intently neat. As the makeup artist Sherman’s goal is pull viewers’ attention to the eyes or cheek bones. As the stylist and wardrobe mistress, Sherman utilizes local thrift shops to help with delivering the idea of time.

Sherman creates these tableaux with an arsenal of props and characters to help create interesting but yet almost clown like photos of women in stereotypical roles. Sherman can be seen as inspiration to many other artists.

Sherman's goal is to alter and manipulate her appearances use the resources from around her and her community to create images that convey the challenges between appearance and identity, as she explains to Vogue Magazine.

 Features

Sherman’s work was displayed in the Albright Knox Gallery available for both SUNY Buffalo campuses.